Pearl white coupe revival

[ottawa coupe]

Slow progress but

20240827_082706.jpg

[ottawa coupe]

Slow progress but

20240827_082706.jpg

[david1980]

did you post a picture of the quarter? its not shown for me if you did.

Also could you post a picture of the disc/pad you used?

[ottawa coupe]

Yep, the stipping discs are the way to go for this work. Half an hour and the quarter is stripped. Bout 1/3 worn.

At any rate that distraction must be put to the side, gotta get some primer into the engine bay so i can then get on with making the body panels pretty properly. So, empty bay once again, manual labour to scuff paint, oh goodie.

20240818_161906.jpg

With luck, epoxy primer in the bay by the end of the month.

[ottawa coupe]

Well, that was a quick search....

Not getting the tool. There was lots of discussion on old school hotrod forums about it. Lotsa people saying yes it works great but the drums are expensive. Then a few people chimed in about stripping discs for grinders. If you'll recall i tried one on the undercoating and was underwhelmed. Not so when used for their intended purpose (i know, shocking right??!).

Picked up a disc for $11. Got this done in 5 mins with no appreciable wear on the disc.


you can buy an awful lot of discs for the same $280 the tool costs.... and if you're like me and this is the last time you're doin full on bodywork like this, no need to buy another tool to sit in the drawer....

[ottawa coupe]

how long they last is a key consideration too. the fact is i don't know yet, i've gotten as far as confirming the Princess Auto (halfords equivalent for you guys??) knockoff that is readily available here has the same size of drum as the eastwood one. the eastwood tool is on sale and is the same price as the regular cost of the princess auto one. the drums are not cheap from either vendor.

i'm going to do some more searching regarding longevity and see what i can figure out.

[Tractor Dave]

The drums are expensive and how many will you go through doing the whole car? Let me know though because I might get one myself.

[ottawa coupe]

So, chemical stripper is probably a no go as it's not the 100% solution i had hoped. It chewed thru the blue paint job pretty damned quick but barely got thru the oe clearcoat letalone the paint....

20240817_150307.jpg
it has however softened it so i need to remove it now regardless....

I am wondering now just how far i should strip the body. This quarter is gonna go to bare metal as will the front fenders to deal with some rot. Given the costs of chemicals and the time involved, i'm wondering it i should say screw it and get this and bring it all down to bare metal in a time efficient manner. Videos suggest it rips thru paint and filler rather quickly!

https://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-contour-sct.html

For cost perspective, the can of paint stripper was $80 and only did the above. The tool is $280 cad to my door.

Sandpaper of course is a lot cheaper but will take weeks to complete....

Decisions...

[ottawa coupe]

Well, rolled this project back into the workshop just now. Spent an unholy ampunt of money on the racecar, will find out next week if that was a waste (of course it was, because racecar!!!).

20240815_194054.jpg

Still too hot n muggy to do lots of manual labour unless absolutely required so i think i will start emplying some chemical pai t stripper. Especially to the drivers side rear quarter. The car was painted blue, then hit, then bondoed and then repainted blue. Sanding thru all of that is just more than i want to do and i wanna straighten it out more first.

20240815_194045.jpg
because the racecar stole all of my money, i seriously doubt i will get beyond primer stage anytime soon.... i suspect i will spend a lot of time this winter dealing with wiring instead as it will be a long time before i can afford to paint.

I still need to find seats too....

[ottawa coupe]

Well, no real work done on the coupe as i am trying to bend the racecar to my will.

But i did pick up actual b5 avus wheels today lol

20240726_140247.jpg testing the racecar tonight and then making a bunch of decisions based on that. I'll probably start back on this next week

[ottawa coupe]

Anyone out there prepped these for racing duties and put them on some scales to see weight distribution? Did it actually handle or did it audisteer?

The reason i ask is i feel i am at a crossroads with my racecar. It's a mk5 r32 with a 3.6 vr6 in it. And it is really not working out for me. On paper is should be a rocketship. 280hp, flappy paddles, awd. But the reallity is it's a damed heavy (3070lbs!) understeery uncontrollable pig that is burning up $500 in rubber a race to turn in really terrible lap times.

I am going to test a couple things but i feel that i am throwing good money after bad on it and i should probably cut my losses.

Wondering if i should pivot on this project, put the 3.6 in it and giv'er. If i were to do it, now is the time to go for it as the shell is empty.

[Rikki Kitto]

Also not really necessary apologies in advance if I'm incorrect

[Rikki Kitto]

Aren't these cars zinc plated bodywork, and if taken back to bare metal is maybe too much work

[ottawa coupe]

No showcar for me. I do not possess the skill to do that myself (who am i kidding, i don't have the patience!) And i don't have the wallet to pay someone to do it for me lol.

Right now the goal is just to get a good basic paint coating over rust free metal. To that end i got the drivers side frame rail sanded down and bare spots por'd. I will likely have to pull the subframe to get to the bottom of them but i need to keep it mobile for a couple more weeks. Hope to get the firewall scuffed this week and passenger rail sorted next week. Then the rain tray. Then i believe it'll be an epoxy primer then high build. Then it'll sit while i get the rest of the body sorted.

Slowly but surely. Emphasis on slowly lol

20240715_171558.jpg

[jbrentd]

Keep up the good work, you are plugging away at it. For the engine bay, are you planning to grind and sand for a show car tucked look? Or just a nice base to start for a respray?